Hyundai N - the performance brand that is setting car goals literally !!

For those who have been craving the performance of a supercar in the body of a hot hatch there were only a few options ranging from the gold standard Golf GTI, Megane RS, Civic Type-R and even the Focus ST/RS but today, the hot hatches that we have come to love and enjoy have become more complex and single-minded in giving the end user only a certain point of enjoyment such as fake sounds, lap records and even hybrid tech rather than focusing on the best things such as a well weighted steering, a fun engine and best of all a brilliantly balanced chassis that is sure to bring up the smiles of any person driving it in a back road.

Hyundai, on the other hand, seems to be changing those perceptions and with their hatches, they have been changing the game recently, specifically thanks to Albert Biermann who has been responsible for making the company's cars fun to drive and enjoy. If that name seems very familiar then it should because he was the very person behind all the legendary BMW M cars including the legendary E92 M3 which I consider today still to be a work of art and that intoxicating V8 paired with the brilliant dynamics of the E90-93 chassis make it a desirable and fine machine.

Enter the brand N, a range of performance cars comprising of the I30 N and the recently introduced Veloster N which have been personally developed by Biermann himself to create smiles among the people and ensure that driving fun is about the whole experience and not just lap times. The results which I am happy to say have been nothing short of extraordinary. the two cars are powered by a 2.0 Ltr turbocharged inline-4 engine producing 275bhp and 353nm of torque powering the front wheels and routing all that power through a 6-speed transmission, nowadays a godsend as automatics sometimes ruin the experience of a fun car. There is a limited slip differential of the electronic type and both cars get an electronic damping system with an adjustable suspension which can be switched easily thanks to the various driving modes present in both cars giving one the balance of comfort and hard track riding everyday.

The interiors of both the cars are so well executed to the point that other companies like Honda and Ford better learn how to design interiors much better and how they can have buttons with clearly marked names and letters on them, also present are 5 driving modes that include Normal, Sport, Sport+, N mode and a custom mode with a crazy 2000 combinations for the Engine, ECU, Suspension, Exhaust and even the Differential. There is soft leather around the cabin and some materials are built to last longer and not break over time but they are a definite improvement over previous Hyundai's.

Handling and chassis wise both of these cars have revised suspension tuning and axle geometry and they play along with the dampers and suspension to give excellent cornering ability not only in the backroads but also in the racetrack as well. With crazy names like N-Corner carving differential and N-Axle geometry might seem like an afterthought but many such features found in both these cars actually work and this witchcraft is what surprises me the most as a fan and a car nerd.

All in all though the brand N looks to have a very exciting future and the praise the i30N is getting proves that Hyundai is on the right track and with the Veloster N, the brand and its products are proving to be as tempting propositions and the competition must be very much worried as one needs to take them in notice otherwise they are going to be smoked and they would not even have seen it from a very huge distance.